120 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
On June 22nd his attention was called to a Swallow's 
nest on a beam in his potting-shed, containing a Cuckoo 
apparently a week old and two Swallows three or four 
days younger. About a week before, his gardener had 
noticed two broken Swallow’s eggs on the ground be- 
neath the nest. The Cuckoo did not appear to pay any 
attention to the young Swallows, one of which had dis- 
appeared on the 23rd, having probably died and been 
removed by the old birds. The remaining young one 
seemed weakly and starved, so Mr. Wolley-Dod placed 
an empty Blackbird’s nest on the beam and put the 
Cuckoo in it; but as the old birds confined their atten- 
tion to the usurper, he moved the young Swallow also. 
On the 2nd of July the Cuckoo left the nest and sat 
on the beam behind it, and on the following day the 
Swallows began to neglect the foster-child for their own 
offspring. Three days later the Cuckoo upset a prop 
that supported the Blackbird’s nest, causing the old birds 
to be violently agitated. They never fed it again, and 
from this time seemed to regard it as an enemy, flying 
at it with angry cries, and approaching their own young 
by a circuitous route. On the 6th the Cuckoo escaped 
into the garden, where the old birds, in company with 
several others, chased it from tree to tree, mobbing it 
as though it had been an adult Cuckoo. After this 
date Mr. Wolley-Dod did not see the Cuckoo again, 
and it is uncertain whether it starved or was able to 
fend for itself. The young Swallow left the nest on 
the 8th or 9th of July. 
